Saturday, April 17, 2010

During a particularly snowy summer in 1816, Mary Shelley and her husband Percy were trapped in Lord Byron's house on Lake Geneva. Due to the unseasonable weather Lord Byron and his guests had to stay inside due to the cold. To pass the time, they had a writing competition to see who could write the best ghost story. Mary Shelley wrote the book Frankenstein.

Now, why was it so cold and snowy in the summer of 1816? In Indonesia there is a volcano that erupted in in 1815 called Tambora. Considered the worst volcano in recorded history, Tambora killed as many as 60,000 people outright. The Volcano also threw up huge plumes of smoke and ash that eventually covered the globe. This blocked out the sun and affected the weather.

1816 became known as the Year Without a Summer. America had snow in June, July and August. There was famine and crop failures all over the world.

It could still effect America's weather patterns. It could be wetter in the central midwestern plains, and it could move tornado alley to the North and East. Mimicking bad El Nino years.

But Kelly is right. To have another 1816, something like the Tambora explosion/eruptions would make Mt Pentitubo look quaint by comparison, and that one actually lowered the tempurature by almost a whole degree.

Now if the bigger Volcanic Complex next to the one that is currently erruption go off--then start to worry.

Dr Z, you were spammed by another pathetic Chinese spammer just above ^

Seeing Eye, you said "Now if the bigger Volcanic Complex next to the one that is currently erruption [sic] go off--then start to worry." ... the last time Iceland erupted in the late 1800s, this particular volcano went off first, for a year of jettisoning ash and hydrogen sulfide, and then the others adjacent continued to spew lava for several more years.

Dr. Zira, I must caution you. Experimental brain surgery on these creatures is one thing, and I'm all in favor of it. But to suggest that we can learn anything about the simian nature from a study of man is sheer nonsense. Man is a menace, a walking pestilence. He eats up his food supply in the forest, then migrates to our green belts and ravages our crops. The sooner he is exterminated, the better. It's a question of simian survival.